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Chat Thread: RJ Remembers Amblerfest !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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This is getting pretty Tunnel-ish for a CT. There are 7.4 million job openings in the US. No one is forcing anyone to drive an Uber for their primary source of income and pretty much every single Uber driver I've ever talked to was doing it as a side hustle.

Yeah, the scary thing is when you get some guy from 90 miles away who does it full time and has been up for 20 straight hours and his car smell like Red Bull and ass.
 
The system is exploitative because consumers demand lower prices. It's the same reason that Mexicans cross the border to pick your strawberries and Thai slaves catch your shrimp. In general, Americans aren't willing to pay extra to ensure that the lower class is being treated humanely.

If globalization has ensured we're never going to accept higher prices ever again ever, then are our only choices really:

1) nativism, protectionism, closed borders, trade wars, tariffs
2) lean into it, gig economy, let silicon valley get rich off the backs of a bunch of part time, no collective bargaining, no benefits work

Seems like neoliberalism will push us to #2, and if that's the case, we'll just be fighting to either

1) protect the silicon valley/investor class
2) bolster the welfare state, UBI

My hope is we go 2, 2. My guess is we go 2, 1.
 
Bug repellent with DEET is the best stuff. 25% or higher is much better than the single digit% stuff. Can't help with the camp smell. Sweet smelling stuff you could use will attract the insects.

Wear long socks and long pants when you have to go outside.

ugh, i was hoping there was some kind of lotion i could put on my legs/top of feet after showering that would help even a little without making me smell like outward bound. oh well, deet bomb it is.
 
This is getting pretty Tunnel-ish for a CT. There are 7.4 million job openings in the US. No one is forcing anyone to drive an Uber for their primary source of income and pretty much every single Uber driver I've ever talked to was doing it as a side hustle.

The 7.4 millions jobs openings is one of biggest red herrings imaginable. How many of those are in fields needing specific experience that few have? How many are in places where many people can't move due to family responsibilities? How many are for minimum or low wages? Or are gig jobs?

Raw numbers mean nothing.
 
The 7.4 millions jobs openings is one of biggest red herrings imaginable. How many of those are in fields needing specific experience that few have? How many are in places where many people can't move due to family responsibilities? How many are for minimum or low wages? Or are gig jobs?

Raw numbers mean nothing.

That's his point. Uber drivers can find another low wage job fairly easily if they don't like the low wages at their current Uber job.

People who don't want to work a shitty job will come up with excuses for why they don't want a shitty job all day long.
 
Another tough work trip, huh?

Yeah well I’m not in sales, so I don’t really need to be at our booth at all times. Already took care of a few media commitments here yesterday and put in about 3 hours of actual work in the hotel room this morning.
 
The 7.4 millions jobs openings is one of biggest red herrings imaginable. How many of those are in fields needing specific experience that few have? How many are in places where many people can't move due to family responsibilities? How many are for minimum or low wages? Or are gig jobs?

Raw numbers mean nothing.

You'd prefer less job openings and higher unemployment rates? Of course they mean something, but also don't tell the whole story.

fc_obtuseang_41727_lg.gif
 
Uber Corp makes lots of money because all the expenses fall on the driver. Vehicle maintenance and cleanliness, gas, insurance, even having a " good enough" vehicle.

Uber also makes a lot of money because they’ve created an easy to use platform to connect customers to clients in a very timely fashion for a reasonable price. It’s a pretty sensitive apple cart. It’s an industry where the legwork done by ownership and labor are obvious and appreciated. People would turn on both of them if fares went up or it took longer to get a ride.

Uber drivers would be better off decreasing their dependence on driving by organizing politically for universal health care and a federal jobs guarantee so they can either drive on the side or have a fallback option if driving doesn’t work out.

Uber also makes a lot of money because they recognized a market niche that exploited the following: large-scale changes in the labor market (shift to flexible "gig" economy + growth in the proportion of people living in economic precarity) in an industry where workers/contractors would already have their own cars already.

Uber Corp makes lots of money because all the expenses fall on the driver. Vehicle maintenance and cleanliness, gas, insurance, even having a " good enough" vehicle.

Ummmm, Uber doesn't make a lot of money. They make no money. I'm pretty sure they've lost more money than any private company in the history of existence.
 
You'd prefer less job openings and higher unemployment rates? Of course they mean something, but also don't tell the whole story.

fc_obtuseang_41727_lg.gif

One has nothing to do with the other. You made a statement with no context. Thus, it is useless and not at all relevant.
 
Car rides cost what they cost. It's about what a taxi ride costs, roughly double what Uber charges. This is the investor class foolishly spending ten billion dollars or so to subsidize the cost of taxi's for average joes like you and me for the past 5 years on some longshot bet of either bankrupting all the cab companies and eventually raising rates or turning a profit once autonomous cars come around. Neither is likely to work, so stop thinking of Uber as corporate America taking advantage of the worker class for profit. It's been a great giant gift to us all that's unlikely to still be giving 10 years from now.
 
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Dunno if you can even still deduct maintenance and gas as business expenses after the cool new tax law. Think they're making like $9/hr.
Yes you can still deduct business expenses
 
One has nothing to do with the other. You made a statement with no context. Thus, it is useless and not at all relevant.

You don't think that of the 7.4 million open jobs, that a fairly high percentage are low-wage jobs, comparable to (likely greater than in many cases) what a full time Uber driver would make? Of course it was relevant.
 
That doesn't mean people are qualified or geographically available or that the jobs aren't full time. If you accept that there are so many jobs available and accessible, then Uber should have to pay their drivers more due to competition for workers.
 
Do these Uber salaries factor in tips?

And regarding SE Income, they do have to pay the employer portion, but the new pass through business deduction would likely offset that.
 
Just imagine if we funded massive public transit projects instead

I used to do public transit in DC a lot, and I live right next to a metro stop here but man public transit in LA just flat out doesn't feel safe. Had some dude calling me out for just glancing at him the other day.
 
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